In the United States, infeed conveyors for rolls of paper products such as bathroom tissue (BRT) and household towel (HHT) have fed the respective rolls or workpieces into a packaging machine in a direction which is axial with respect to the cylindrical rolls of paper. In Europe, the rolls of paper product are typically fed into the packaging machine with the roll moving in a radial direction. The European roll is wrapped with a different style of package and with the seal differently oriented with respect to the surfaces and the advertising material printed on the wrapping film.
In the paper industry, paper products such as BRT and HHT are produced from paper made by paper making machines. The base paper from the paper making machines is wound at the machine output into large rolls commonly referred to as parent rolls. The parent rolls are then transported to a paper converting area where the paper product is unwound from the parent roll and re-wound into a smaller roll commonly known as a log. The diameter of a log is equivalent to the diameter of a finished roll of BRT or HHT. However, a log is typically ten to fifteen feet long. The log is transported to a cutting machine having one or more blades that cut the log at predetermined intervals into the length of roll product that is ultimately sold to the consumer. After being cut, the individual rolls of BRT or HHT are transported by a supply conveyor to a wrapping machine where the rolls are subsequently wrapped.
Because the supply conveyor contains a continuous supply of rolls whose ends abut one another, it is necessary to utilize an infeed conveyor in order to separate each roll of BRT or HHT and group a predetermined number of rolls (if necessary) prior to feeding each roll or each group of rolls into the packaging machine. This is accomplished through the use of an infeed conveyor. Infeed conveyors which are utilized for separating and regrouping rolls of BRT or HHT are well known in the art. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,360,098 (Nordstrom). This prior art infeed conveyor receives product rolls or workpieces from the supply conveyor in a direction which is axial with respect to the cylindrical rolls of paper. The rolls are separated and grouped prior to being fed into the packaging machine in the same direction. This infeed conveyor is commonly used in the United States as well as other foreign countries.
The present invention, in addition to separating and grouping the rolls of paper product, rotates or up-ends each roll so that each roll of paper product is fed into the packaging machine with the roll moving in a radial direction. As previously noted, many European wrapping machines require the workpieces conveyed into the wrapping machine to be oriented in this direction. It is an object of this invention to provide an infeed conveyor which can, in addition to separating and grouping rolls of paper product, rotate or up-end rolls of paper product for a packaging machine which requires each roll to have the radial orientation prior to being fed into the packaging machine. It is an object to provide an apparatus for up-ending rolls of paper product that is of a simple design. It is further object to provide such an apparatus that works reliably and does not damage the paper product rolls.
The inventors are aware of no prior art which discloses or teaches this invention. Further objectives and advantages of the invention will become apparent in the descriptions which follow.